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Knowledge + Data = Power: 3 Outside the Box Data Solutions

“Knowledge + Data = Power” is a very powerful equation. It spotlights the importance of thinking outside your normal professional routines and about how to improve your current business processes. Thinking outside the box with data is what makes companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook (to name a few) some of the most successful and innovative companies in the world. While companies like these compete for top talent, and dollars, on the global scale, here are a few ways most companies can use big data within their current operations to scale responsibly and drive revenue:

Predictive Analytics: Using Consumer Data Attributes in Risk Modeling
Consumer contact data is critical to predictive modeling. Creating a full story of your client and identifying transaction risk signals are extraordinarily powerful in accurately predicting outcomes. In the risk modeling space, here are a few data attributes we identify during data evaluations that can benefit your modeling:

Cross-Checking Inputs: Fraudsters have a difficult time obtaining all of the identity data from a single consumer. A fraudster may obtain a phone and name in a data breach, but it is hard to secure the physical or email address that matches up. Cross-checking phone, name, address, IP, and email helps find discrepancies and pass through good customers whose data points all match.

Email Attributes: Email data provides some valuable insight into a transaction, especially in the digital goods segment. One attribute unique to Whitepages Pro is ‘Email First Seen Date,’ which will tell you when we have first seen the email address. Emails first seen more recently than 100 days ago correlate strongly with risky transactions.

IP Attributes: IP proxy flag can tell you if the person behind the transaction or application is trying to hide their identity. IP proxy is a very strong risk signal in modeling.

Skip Tracing – Tracking Down a Person’s Location
One of the most important aspects within skip tracing is access to the most contact data points possible. Multiple addresses, phone numbers, and associated people are invaluable to the collections process. Relational databases (think of an excel spreadsheet) have to replace these data points when a new one is formed. For example, if someone moves, his or her previous address is removed.

Good news: the Whitepages Identity Graph handles data differently. The Identity Graph is a graph-structured database that solves the relational database dilemma. Whitepages’ database has address data going back 30 years and can associate multiple people to a person, address, mobile, and landline phone number through unlimited data linkages.

Address Normalization
Fraudsters are notorious for using different address formats for their billing and shipping addresses to throw off fraud investigators. In a recent conversation with a client, I learned that a fraudster successfully bought 10 laptops on 5 different transactions by entering variations of the same address. The scammer switched around Ct. vs. Court, STE vs. Suite, and Northwest vs. NW. By the time the scam was identified, the laptops were already shipped, costing the business $1,000+.

Whitepages Pro Data
Whitepages Pro can help you with all the three data difficulties of predictive analytics, skip tracing, and address normalization discussed above. The two main products we offer are:

1. API: We have an easy to integrate, RESTful API with a JSON output. We like to keep it simple and provide the online resources your developers need to integrate the API into your current systems. We have several different API keys available depending upon your data needs.

2. Pro Web: It is a simple, easy to use platform where users can interact and find the data they need. The product allows unlimited users, user management, and advanced reporting.

Contact us today to brainstorm some ideas on how we can help solve your current data problems. Best of all, we offer complimentary data evaluations for your specific business and department. Remember, Knowledge + Data = Power.